Page 10 | Stop implying it's not so bad now because you grew up with no central heating and scraped ice off the windows.

Grapewrath · 02/04/2022 20:18

I grew up in a house with central heating but was thrown out at 16. I stayed with a friend who was a young mum in a council house. We couldn’t afford carpets and had one gas fire to heat the whole house. It was damp, freezing and miserable. The baby would go to bed in pjs and a fleecy onesie then one of us would sleep in with her to keep her warm. Her little nose and hands would be freezing. Getting up in the morning was awful

We would buy stuff like washing powder and cereal from the weigh shop as we could only afford a bit at a time
We survived, but I would not wish that lifestyle on anyone tbh. It was miserable

TheVeryFaintRedLine · 02/04/2022 20:20

@mumda getting a large percentage of kids into university is another marker of a civilised society. Surely a good thing to have an educated population.

overitall1 · 02/04/2022 20:24

It's used to remind people that we haven't got it uniquely tough, and that it was just as bad (fuel crisis, inflation) in the 1970s

We coped then. We'll cope now.

This! I have said it, not to say 'when I was young' but to say t'was ever thus and you CAN survive it. Dead right we shouldn't have to, but when push comes to shove we can.

It is complete shit, but at the end of the day what is the alternative to coping?

UnnecessaryFennel · 02/04/2022 20:35

The problem is when 'coping' starts to become 'accepting'.

It may well be that most of us will cope with this. But absolutely none of us should accept it. I fear that our usual political apathy will set in quick though. We should be on the streets, yet probably the Tories will get another majority in two years time, because people's memories are short and 'but Corbyn' is still, bizarrely, effective.

XDownwiththissortofthingX · 02/04/2022 20:42

I don't think it's about implying that it's ok to be cold in the UK in 2022, I think a lot of people feel that there are some who are completely over-egging this to a ridiculous degree.

I'm lucky in that I don't really feel the cold and I'm comfortable sitting in a house with the windows open in April, but at the same time I'm not buying people claiming they are 'literally freezing' because they can't have the central heating on for hours on end when ambient temperatures are mid-teens OUTSIDE!!!

Yeah, it's disgraceful that people can't afford to heat their homes how they wish in 2022, but it's hardly a Scott of the Antarctic situation in leafy Home Countiesshire right now. Some people just like to exaggerate everything for effect, and I think that's what's getting up the noses of some of the 'back in my day' generation.

Washermother33 · 02/04/2022 20:50

I also had that childhood - it wasn’t great - but I did cope and if I need to I will again .

Cirelle · 02/04/2022 20:54

In the 80s I grew up in a house with no heating except a coal fire for which we couldn’t afford enough coal. There was no privacy in winter because we all had to huddle round the fire, the other rooms were too cold. There was ice on the inside of the windows. We wore coats and hats in bed and were still freezing. Mum could only afford enough food for the kids, when we finished she scraped the leftovers from our plates onto hers and that was her dinner. It wasn’t ok then and it certainly isn’t ok now. I’m saddened and shocked that people will be in this sort of situation again, I thought it was long in the past.

flirtygirl · 02/04/2022 21:12

XDownwiththissortofthingX

But not everyone in the UK has temperature in the teens.

The Midlands and up are increasingly cold.

Many are in the minus and barely above zero.

It's not made up that the North is colder.

TooBigForMyBoots · 02/04/2022 21:18

Why do you specify European energy companies @LndnGrl? BP are minting it right now.

MrOllivander · 02/04/2022 21:22

It doesn't take massively long to get unwell with cold either. We had a power cut due to massive amounts of snow, I was about 5 at the time. All I remember was how cold I was. Parents did everything they could, we slept in one bed, had layers etc but I was admitted to hospital with hypothermia. The only thing I can remember from hospital was how bright and hot it was!

JudgeJ · 02/04/2022 21:25

@flashbac

FFS

I also had no central heating in the house as a kid. There was a hole under the bathtub that cats would use to come in while you were freezing arse off on the loo. It was bloody grim. I don't wish it on anybody. People shouldn't have to be uncomfortable in their own bleeding homes for goodness sakes. It shouldn't be happening in this day and age. Stop defending it.

Who elected you as Opinions Czar? Maybe the complainers should stop being so soft! It may surprise you that everyone is entitled to an opinion, even one that contradicts you.

VampireMoney · 02/04/2022 21:40

@XDownwiththissortofthingX

I don't think it's about implying that it's ok to be cold in the UK in 2022, I think a lot of people feel that there are some who are completely over-egging this to a ridiculous degree.

I'm lucky in that I don't really feel the cold and I'm comfortable sitting in a house with the windows open in April, but at the same time I'm not buying people claiming they are 'literally freezing' because they can't have the central heating on for hours on end when ambient temperatures are mid-teens OUTSIDE!!!

Yeah, it's disgraceful that people can't afford to heat their homes how they wish in 2022, but it's hardly a Scott of the Antarctic situation in leafy Home Countiesshire right now. Some people just like to exaggerate everything for effect, and I think that's what's getting up the noses of some of the 'back in my day' generation.

I'm assuming you don't live in the north? It's been 6° here today, and it's 0 tonight. That's what our temperatures look like from October to the end of April.

ilovesooty · 02/04/2022 21:41

Maybe the complainers should stop being so soft

I suppose not being able afford heating or to feed yourself properly is character building is it?

TheHateIsNotGood · 02/04/2022 22:00

Us oldies do have to admit being a bit smug about the hardships now faced and harking back to our previous days of hardship as a comparison.

The generations today face ongoing hardships that we never faced before and expectations of working at the same time as having children are based on theory with little thought given to the realities of life.

This model of family socio-economic life was launched as the norm before it was even tested - it doesn't work no matter how much 'free childcare' you throw at it.

AnnaABC · 02/04/2022 22:05

Hey...definitely in it together eh? ....hope we might be all levelled up to Rishi.

Don't think he'll be sitting wrapped in a blanket any time soon. 😡

www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/news/politics/rishi-sunak-granted-permission-to-build-swimming-pool-gym-and-tennis-court-at-his-historic-north-yorkshire-home-3361680

Alexandra2001 · 02/04/2022 22:17

[quote Clavinova]How come EU consumers are not facing the same level of hike?

They faced higher rises last year/last quarter?

"The price of gas has risen by 750 percent and electricity prices have doubled," says Mads Ulrik Pedersen with Danish greenhouse company Alfred Pedersen & Son. He explains how this means that winter production of Danish tomatoes has been reduced by 40%. "We have had to lay off 30 of our skilled employees.

www.hortidaily.com/article/9380339/denmark-40-fewer-tomatoes-because-of-the-high-gas-prices/

Electric bills in Italy set for record 55 percent rise from January.

A record hike in the cost of household bills is due to come into effect from Saturday, at an increase of 55 percent for electricity and 41.8 percent for gas.

The increases for the first quarter of 2022 decided by the Regulatory Authority for Energy Networks and Environment (Arera) mark a new high after a series of increases over the past year.

In July, electricity bills rose by 9.9 percent and 15.3 percent for gas, while in October figures increased by 29.8 percent for electricity and 14.4 percent for gas.

www.thelocal.it/20211231/italys-energy-bills-set-for-record-rise-from-january/[/quote]
You appear to have missed out the very substantial help these Govts are giving their consumers Clav

I'm sure its just an over sight :)

Fossilsmorefossils · 02/04/2022 22:26

Ooh ooh ooh can I join?

I soent a (small) part of my childhood in a house with no heating, no hot water, no electricity and wasn't connected to the sewage system! I 'showered' outdoors by throwing a bucket of cold well water over my body. We washed our socks and knickers by boiling them in soapy water or it wouldn't get clean enough. had to shovel the shit out of a kind of well type reservoir and bring it away (to a field further back) because the well type thing kept flooding. Do I win?

It was shit. Literally and figuratively. Being cold really sucks, I recon (sp?) that's why we started making fire in the first place.

But taking a few suggestions from others on board can be a good thing. I bought a fake oodie because of a suggestion on mumsnet and I'm really happy with how warm it is.

Rifling · 02/04/2022 22:34

You appear to have missed out the very substantial help these Govts are giving their consumers Clav
We are also fortunate that we don't really need heating at the moment (obviously depending on where you are!). Our heating is switched off until the autumn now.

Lineofconcepcion · 02/04/2022 22:43

Petrol/diesel prices are also high in Spain 190e a litre and Portugal 220e a litre so these issues are not confined to the UK.

BoredZelda · 02/04/2022 22:44

And I've noticed people have started apologising on here for going on holiday, having a party etc!

Not a new thing. Anyone suggesting on MN they will spend money, always has some arse telling them they are tone deaf for not realising some people have tuppence spare.

BoredZelda · 02/04/2022 22:45

Petrol/diesel prices are also high in Spain 190e a litre and Portugal 220e a litre so these issues are not confined to the UK.

Where did anyone suggest they were? But you also realise it isn’t just about petrol prices.

TooBigForMyBoots · 02/04/2022 22:46

Us oldies do have to admit being a bit smug about the hardships now faced and harking back to our previous days of hardship as a comparison.

I'm not smug. I'm alive. One of my friend's died from a fatal asthma attack at 10, another was regularly hospitalised for it and suffers from the damage now, long into her 50s. Both their father's worked, but living conditions were really that shit.

QueenofDestruction · 02/04/2022 22:50

Very true, people have been warned about fuel consumption, the finite nature of resources, population numbers and the continued rapid increase in consumption in first world countries. They have been told things could not stay the same but behaviour did not change. This is the start of the effect of greedy consumption. The increase in consumption was just not sustainable of course costs increase.,we could not carry on as we were forever

XDownwiththissortofthingX · 02/04/2022 22:51

@flirtygirl

XDownwiththissortofthingX

But not everyone in the UK has temperature in the teens.

The Midlands and up are increasingly cold.

Many are in the minus and barely above zero.

It's not made up that the North is colder.

I've lived in Scotland most of my life, I'm well aware of temperature difference across the UK. I'm always amazed by how temperate it feels any time I travel to the south coast.

The point was, that people who are complaining and acting like they are literally freezing to death when ambient temperatures outside are in the teens are either - 1. Exaggerating for effect, or 2. have some sort of health problem. That's why it prompts a bit of a cynical response from people who did actually have lived in literal freezing conditions.

XDownwiththissortofthingX · 02/04/2022 22:53

I'm assuming you don't live in the north? It's been 6° here today, and it's 0 tonight. That's what our temperatures look like from October to the end of April

The 'north' to me is Inverness an up. By the majority of most people in the UK's notion of 'north', I'm about as 'north' as it gets.